I christened it the Eating Club. The men did what is called behas karna – debating about politics, inflation and government policies – while the women turned to sing­ ing. All of this happened in the street (my mother would take 45 minutes to reach my aunt’s place, barely 20 houses away, meeting and greeting everyone on the way) and the congregation entered the house only when they wanted to eat. In the early days, the mem­ bers put together elaborate spreads, but later it was decided that every household would limit themselves to only four dishes. Slowly the meetings started to peter out; people aged, began to fall ill, or became immobile. Some other preoccupations have also fallen off the radar. My cousin Suman Saith used to rear and fly homing pigeons. He had close to 400 birds at one time, and he knew them all by their markings. Endurance flying contests were frequent (and held at the national level), where neutral referees would be invited anshikavarma to judge. The pigeons were sent Ridge recorder Sanjeev Saith’s off and at the end of the day, when family home is the only one of its kind they’d grow tired, they’d come left standing; (left) Saith’s photo of back to rest. The number of hours Shankar Road around 1977 they’d spent in the air was logged, and the cumulative time recorded. the area was also called Deemak Other entertainment options Nagar, because of a persistent ter­ were limited. My friends and I mite problem. These pests apart, would visit the Rabindra Rang­ there were jackals and peacocks

sanjeevsaith shala, a large amphitheatre in the neighbourhood. Even ten in the neighbourhood, for film years ago, I’d spot the occasional screenings; I watched It’s a Mad Indian fox, and once, a Neelgai. Mad Mad World the first time here. Memory lane I studied at St Columba’s The other two cinema halls, Naaz School. In the mornings, one of and Sheila, were in Jhandewalan Photographer Sanjeev Saith, whose family was those green, snout buses would (Naaz used to be where PhotoInk come to pick me. After school, Gallery now stands). The other one of the first to settle in New Rajendra Nagar, I’d head down to old Mr Nangia (I hall we frequented was Filmistan, think that was his name)’s cycles- which I passed on my way to St recalls growing up in the 1960s and ’70s. for-hire shop and go around the Stephen’s College everyday in the colony – all for 25 paise. Then, bus. The actress Neena Gupta e all presume that the original houses were in blocks one birthday, my father gifted me travelled in the same bus, and area was named after of eight, and had a common a cycle, which I was supposed to would leave her long hair untied. WDr Rajendra Prasad, roof. This was when the Alstonia ride down to the school, which is That memory is inextricably linked but different people and institu­ outside our house was planted. at a distance of about five kilo­ with another one from that time. tions still spell it differently. When We still live in the original house, metres. Schools close down on The hall was close to a few butcher we got our post office (and the but sadly it is the only one left on the merest of excuses these days, shops and every morning a row of pin code 110060 to ourselves – the street. The rest have been but I rem­ember I had to cycle to bakra heads stared back at me – before this, we had had to share pulled down and converted into school even in the winter. All my but Neena Gupta never did. Karol Bagh’s 5), a large board multistoried residential blocks. friends would wait for me at the Several of New Rajendra spelled it as Rajinder, and that has Rajendra Nagar is like a mini- gate because my clothes would Nagar’s landmarks have disapp­ stuck. It is a small example of the valley, because it is surrounded by have a slender layer of ice (the eared over the years. We used to Punjabification of the area that the Ridge forest on two sides. It is result of a combination of the get milk from the gaushala down started when Partition families flanked on one side by institutions Ridge’s mist and the wind chill) the road, then later DMS booths, were settled here. such as the Ganga Ram Hospital that they wanted to poke and and now Mother Dairy outlets. The first wave of refugees set­ (always, “Sir Ganga Ram Hospital” break into shards. Every evening, a mithaiwala came t­led in single-storey barracks in to my parents), and by the “school In the early 1960s, when peo­ to your doorstep to sell sweets, Reading Road (now Mandir Marg) mile” (named for Bal Bharati, Ram­ ple still had time to spare and but along with the ganderi and and the peripheries of Connaught jas and Springdales schools) on everyone knew everyone else, phalsa sellers, he seems to have Place. My family moved to New the other, that stretches until Pusa the neighbours would meet over also slipped through the cracks. Rajendra Nagar in May 1951: the Road. Up until a few years ago, a long, leisurely Sunday brunch: As told to Karanjeet Kaur. 24 www.timeoutdelhi.net March 30 – April 12 2012

CS-West Final.indd 24 3/22/2012 9:35:21 PM meant a lot of travel within it, espe- cially to the galleries and muse- ums of central and south Delhi. While travelling on a motorbike to Vasant Kunj for a teaching job in 2005, Scaria would look at and observe the changing cityscape around him. “This daily commut- ing created a lot of thinking space for me,” he said. But it was the introduction of the Delhi Metro line to Rithala in 2004 that changed everything. Today, Rohini is one of the Delhi Metro’s major hubs. The residen- tial complex is interspersed with shopping malls, parks, institu- tional areas and a court complex, and has grown to more than 50 sectors. Scaria finds it difficult to imagine the past before the Metro, and says it provided him with a new artistic perspective. “On a Metro ride, you could see g another layer of the city from a completely different perspec- Studio apartment Gigi Scaria and part of his tive,” he explained. “That came

adititailan installation “Someone left a horse on the shore” because of the elevated Metro track here.” ohini has no pretensions From the Rohini West Metro of being a cultural hub. Station, Scaria began photograph- ROriginally conceived by the Life on a Metro ing the construction of malls and DDA in the 1980s as a sub-city the coexistent workers’ shelters to house the capital’s teeming Gigi Scaria tells Sonam Joshi how living – a project that became his series millions, the roughly 40sq km “Site Under Construction”. He neighbourhood today consists in Rohini shapes his art. also drew inspiration from the view of endless rows of residences: overlooking the Netaji Subhash some built by the DDA, with its art world; last year, some of his horse on the shore”, he drew upon Place Metro station for his ani- patent drab architecture; and works were exhibited at ’s the myth of the Trojan horse to mated video “Amusement Park”, other slightly more imaginative first national pavilion at the create a wooden animal whose in which brightly lit, revolving structures built by the cooperative Venice Biennale. body resembles the exteriors of buildings evoke a carnival group housing societies that were Even though Scaria’s work has local apartments. Scaria subse- atmosphere. In 2011, Scaria’s allotted land here. taken him far and wide, he choses quently placed and photographed association with the Metro and Yet Rohini is also an unlikely to continue residing in Rohini, the installation in four locations experiments with placing art in muse for multimedia artist Gigi appreciating its “planned develop- around Rohini and Rithala. In this public spaces received a further Scaria, 38, who has lived here for ment and green cover” over “con- context, the installation alluded to fillip when three of his sculptural the last 13 years. Scaria, who is gested and polluted” South Delhi. urbanites conquering the hinter- installations were placed at two originally from Kerala, calls his In a quiet locality in Sector 14, his lands on the periphery of the city. stations along the Metro’s Airport work “local” in its content and house is within walking distance The identical architecture Express Line. While most people context. “You may construct a of the “Japanese Park”, though, of Rohini’s apartment blocks might notice the major landmarks completely different reality and as Scaria jokes, there is nothing has also been a motif of devel- – the Metro Walk Mall, with its make up your own world, but it aesthetically Japanese about it, opment in Scaria’s work. Vast water park, the PVR multiplexes – basically comes from the proto- it’s just that some aid from Tokyo stretches filled with newly con- in Scaria’s works, the coming type which you actually experi- contributed to its development. structed, uninhabited apartment of commercial spaces is often ence,” he told us. Initially, it was His nearby studio, the next complexes in Sector 27 – an represented by images of the the practical question of employ- sector over, is in a light green “ocean of apartments” Scaria labourers who have built them. ment that brought him and his wife building, conspicuously marked calls it – provide the backdrop for Even as his adopted home Prerna here, soon after earning a by billboards of the neighbour- photographs of his “Wheel”, a inspires his work, Scaria descr­ MFA in painting from Jamia Millia hood health club just behind it. Ferris wheel with seats shaped ibes Rohini’s cultural life with a Islamia University in 1998. The At the entrance is his disassem- like apartment blocks. “There are pinch of salt, calling it “the proper- couple taught art in local schools, bled sculptural installation of a similar scenes in other parts of ty dealer’s city”, whose residents with Scaria taking classes 1 to 10 wooden horse, titled “Someone Delhi,” Scaria said, “but here the enjoy eating out, and visiting malls in neighbouring Harsh Vihar’s left a horse on the shore” (2007), view of the apartment blocks is and multiplexes. “I would tell Deepayan Vidya Niketan. After which turns out to be a metaphor clearer and the visual impact is friends that everyone has books four years of teaching, he was for his artistic engagement with very strong.” Together, the horse in their homes in Rohini – and they awarded with the Inlaks scholar- urban expansion. and the wheel are grim chroniclers are the Yellow Pages,” he quipped. ship in 2002. A bigger break came Scaria’s art often hints at his of the city’s continuous expan- His neighbourhood might not in 2007, with a solo exhibition physical location on the north- sion, and the dislocation this be the city’s cultural centre, but titled Absence of an Architect at western periphery of the city, growth entails. Scaria has ensured that it’s far The Palette Art Gallery. He’s since adjacent to the agricultural lands Living in the north-western from being on the margins of gained some prominence in the of Haryana. For “Someone left a corner of the city has inevitably the art world. March 30 – April 12 2012 www.timeoutdelhi.net 25

CS-West Delhi Final.indd 25 3/22/2012 9:35:47 PM in “Dar”, a song he says is about fear-driven politics. There’s also a fair amount of swaggering and self-reflection. In “The Message”, fellow rapper KeepSake busts out in Punjabi: “Jad mic mere hathan vich tan kadi sharam/ dhamake kardi haigi meri ey kalam/ beete ik saal ch maine kamayi inni izzat/ ni gavana kissi keemat ch main rakhda inni himmat” (When I grab the mic and forget my inhibitions/ I’ll drop such bombs with my pen./ Just in the last year I’ve gained such a reputation, I’m going to hold onto it at any cost.) Though Sharma occasionally performs at clubs such as Purple Lounge and col- leges, he also likes to take his art to the streets for impromptu rap sessions with Dagar. They’ve

adititailang (2) Going places Sly R gets around rapped at the PVR in Subhash acific Mall in Subhash Nagar Nagar, in parking lots, and, once, is an upscale, sprawling at India Gate at midnight. “We Pshopping centre, gleaming In the hood were supposed to perform at Kink brightly amidst the dusty old roads [in ],” he recounted, “but we and buildings that surround it. It’s Simran Bhalla gets the down-low on a growing had a dispute with management. an unlikely breeding ground for a We came back to India Gate – I was new guard of desi rappers, who hip hop scene from Sly R, a Vikaspuri rapper. pretty much drunk that time – and throw around phrases like “he’s parked our car and started rap- a G” as if they’re on the streets 21-year-olds formed a crew called Ramesh,” Dagar laughed. He ping like crazy. Most people didn’t of Atlanta. Yet this is where we Project Hustle with two other added, “They record stuff, but it’s know what we were doing, but they met rapper and singer Sly R (aka members. Many of their former childish. They’re not into social enjoyed it.” They say they feel free Roopansh Sharma) and beat classmates have rap crews with things. They just rap about money, to rap spontaneously around their boxer Kashish Dagar – at the Cin- names such as D Souljaz; most girls, that shit.” Sharma agreed, home turf. “People are friendly nabon of their choosing. That’s of them have ordinary day jobs. and stressed the realness fac- here. They interact more on the not to belittle their street cred: Sharma is a graphic designer, tor: “The main thing is that we’re streets,” Sharma said. the two were born and brought while Dagar reluctantly divulged not fake. They’re like wannabe Lil And while West Delhi may play up in Vikaspuri, attended school to us that he is an engineer. Wayne. They also rap about guns. host to as more glinting malls together at Kendriya Vidayala, and According to these two, the I’m like, if you don’t have a gun, than the rest of the city, there are two players in a burgeoning hip West Delhi hip hop scene has as why are you rapping about it?” are still plenty of places to glean hop community in West Delhi. many divisions – or “beefs” – as Not that Sly doesn’t touch on inspiration. Sharma and Dagar’s It was during their school days any street culture. Sharma and the usual subjects. Take “Yeh favourite spot to ruminate and that Sharma and Dagar became Dagar are derisive of “wannabe” Narazgi Kyoon”: “Chal, mere write is the Jumbo Point near interested in rap. “I was watching rappers. “Most of the rappers saath/ naache saari raat/jabtak Bagdola Villagein Dwarka. “It’s a video in 2002, of 50 Cents ‘In think that ‘we can get chicks’, bachte nahi subah ke chaar in the so quiet there. It’s just a railway Da Club’,” Shara said. “I was so you know – they just put ‘rapper’ clock./ Main hoon raja/ tu banegi track. We park our car there, and influenced by it. I also wanted to before their name,” Sharma rani of my block.” But he’ll also planes fly over,” Sharma said. “We do the same thing.” Last year, the told us. “Rapper Brijesh, rapper talk about broader themes, like get a feeling of peace there.” Nightingale of the west Dr KC Chaudhry Maharashtra come to me for Internet for a couple of hours and on Doctor, astrologer, YouTube sensa- deliveries,” he said. Chaudhry is the first of Jan, at midnight, put my tion – Dr KC Chaudhry is known also a matchmaker and astrologer; first karaoke on YouTube.” to millions of bored surfers around “People treat me like a spiritual Chaudhry started spending up the world for his karaoke videos, in man,” he said. But his biggest claim to 17 hours a day online, recording which he’s covered everyone from to fame is karaoke. songs. His first channel had 1,400 Kishore Kumar to Mariah Carey. Chaudhry was a singer of his own videos, 1,700 subscribers, and 2.4 Within his own locale, he keeps a meandering tunes when, in 2007, he million views in 18 months. His new low profile, and is better known for got some life-changing feedback. channel has over 1,000 subscribers his medical textbooks and practice. “I used to listen to my songs in the and 2,800 videos. But does he have Chaudhry moved to Delhi from car,” he said. “My daughter’s father- local following? Chaudhry said “I Haryana in 1978, living above a in-law heard and said: ‘Kya bakwas am not popular in Paschim Vihar. singer. I would like them to, but that nursing home he ran. In 2002, he hai, yeh koi gana hota hai? Koi People still don’t know I sing.” He doesn’t happen.” Still, Chaudhry shifted to Paschim Vihar’s B Block, break nahi, koi music nahi, isko aap added that India isn’t his main fan often informally sings his favourite, where we caught up with him. Now gana bolte ho? [What is this crap? base. “I’m most popular in Canada, “Maine Pi Sharab, Tumne Kya 67, Chaudhry told us he’s famed for Is this what you call singing?]’” then Pakistan,” he said, “Very Piya?” at local weddings. Nirvana his obstetric expertise. “People from Chaudhry laughed. “I searched the few people in Delhi know me as a Sawhney 26 www.timeoutdelhi.net March 30 – April 12 2012

CS-West Delhi Final.indd 26 3/23/2012 10:13:39 AM ogan c The doll house The daughter of one of Kathputli Colony’s oldest puppeteers, Babulal Bhatt joshua Disappearing act Kathputli Colony, near Shadipur Depot, is an improbable mixture of slum and creative hotspot. It’s crowded lanes have been home to some of India’s finest puppeteers, magicians and acrobats. New York filmmakersJim Goldblum and Adam Weber, who spent five months shooting their documentary Tomorrow We Disappear there, talk about the colony that will soon cease to exist.

alman Rushdie’s Midnight’s went there in the ’70s. We also The first couple of days we were didn’t feel the intimacy, but knew Children is a favourite with read Net of Magic by Lee Siegel, an sort of expecting to walk in to it was possible. Sboth of us. There’s this part American professor. He had a long wonderland. It definitely did not We’re basically setting up in which Salim passes through a relationship with some people in work that way. It looks, ostensibly, Kathputli in the context of Delhi colony of magicians. We became the colony in the ’90s. He said it like any other slum. But there are at large – the fact that, within really obsessed with the idea of a just takes coming back, because 2,800 artists there, many more this sprawling metropolis, there magicians’ ghetto. Then we read so many people come there and have come around the periphery. exists a colony of musicians, a Times of India article about how they never see them again. We That they’re doing performing arts acrobats and puppeteers. It’s a they were going to relocate the came back day after day, month that have travelled to England little bit out of sight, out of mind. colony. A year later, we were there. after month with no other agenda and Japan and America isn’t obvi- It’s pretty easy to drive by it. And There has been a proliferation but to sit and listen. ous. Then people started pulling then we’re following an ensemble of articles since we started work- What’s interesting is that we puppets out of the closet and the cast – Rahman the magician, ing on this project, but when we live in a digital age, where people magicians took their bags off the Puran Bhatt the puppeteer, Maya were looking it up, we were limited can be found on the Internet. We shelves and the art started to the acrobat – and dealing with the to a couple of clippings and old, were talking to the magician Isha- unveil itself. There was this one triumphs and travails of their lives weird video reports. We wanted muddin, who’d done the famous moment at a wedding , when we in a year when they’re going to to go and see if it really existed Indian rope trick, on Gmail before literally got swept up and ended be relocated. and if any of these traditions still we went, and Kailash, a puppeteer up at this tent with a DJ. There was For 30 years, there have always persist. To work in Kathputli over in the colony, on Facebook. So point when we put down our cam- been rumours of a relocation, or a long period of time is difficult. once we arrived, they kind of eras and started dancing like idi- that they were going to be kicked We talked to a BBC director who introduced us. ots. That was a moment where we out. But in terms of the plans for 28 www.timeoutdelhi.net March 30 – April 12 2012

CS-West Delhi Final.indd 28 3/22/2012 9:37:47 PM the skyscraper, it all unfolded in the months after we started shooting. We were there when Band baaja Bollywood Raheja [the developer] brought the Katputhli people to the Uday Bhatia on the Delhi filmmakers who decided to go west. relocation spot. That was the first time they saw where they were going to be relocated. They had to sign a paper of consent. We actually have the moment of the signature , when they realise this is an inevitability. Katputli Colony has every rep- resentation of a slum. Yet these artists have been able to build spaces that accommodate their art form. People have to have a place to store their acrobat poles, and when you start to deal with more utilitarian spaces, you push away the ability to accommodate your art. It’s going be hard to carve a storey-high puppet in a house that’s eight feet by 12 feet. When it comes to space in Delhi, all you see is that there’s no place to build and that these poeple are squatting on Ticket to ride in Band Baaja Baaraat. government land. Can we put See p57 for the shop that outfitted her for the role them in nicer houses somewhere else? Yeah, of course. It’s easy to ignore a culture when you’re hosla Ka Ghosla is usu- Lucky, played by Abhay Deol, is Delhi. “One time, we came upon dealing with certain numbers. ally regarded as the first a master thief (the character is this particular house, and we Midnight’s Children addresses Kbig screen representation based on real-life “super-chor” just knew it belonged to Shruti,” how magicians believe in the of West Delhi. Yet, according to Bunty, originally from Vikaspuri). Abid said. “There was a feel to it, possibility of magic, which makes its director, the setting wasn’t He eventually discovers that his a kind of design to the furniture, them very skeptical of government really West Delhi per se. “Khosla skills, though formidable, aren’t the way the bedroom was set up. promises. We liked the connection Ka Ghosla could have been set in quite enough to get him what he So we used props from the house between the kind of illusion of the any of the core inner city areas,” really wants, which is social stand- and shot there.” , way our systems run and also the Dibakar Banerjee said of his 2006 ing. Like Khosla Ka Ghosla, the shot in colonies across Delhi but illusion of performance. debut. “In my mind, it wasn’t nec- film is full of characters trying to employing a similar middle-class What’s interesting is how, in essarily West Delhi. It could have escape their surroundings. Lucky aesthetic, also released in 2008 the face of immediate destruction, been anywhere from Model Town can’t shake his lower middle-class (it’s no coincidence the director someone will spend money to fix to Karol Bagh to East Patel Nagar. I origins any more than Khosla Jr was , Band Baaja their roof. In many ways, the place just wanted an area where DDA flat can ditch his embarrassing first Baaraat’s screenwriter). is very much a slum, but when you culture hadn’t come in.” name, Chiraunji Lal. Banerjee said More than filming in the same dig deeper, you realise there’s At any rate, Khosla was a landmark that this desire to rise above – and neighbourhoods, it’s the visual this palace that exists. It’s not as far as cinematic representations move out of – West Delhi was and aural palette of these films real, it’s an idea, but I think they of Delhi were concerned (Chashme something he’d noticed around (“immigrant style”, as Banerjee all share it. It kind of started with Buddoor, 1981, and New Delhi him for years. “People would grow puts it) that binds them together. a cooperative. All these people Times, 1986, notwithstanding). up, get a job in South Delhi and Despite their differences, all of came together and put in 60-80 Over the next decade, Bollywood move there,” he said. “Sometimes them have sets that look lived-in, rupees of their money back in wandered into Paharganj and Pali- you’d hear of an illustrious son who’d feature actual Delhi Punjabis, the ’70s. That was a big deal. ka Bazaar, Lodhi Colony and North bought his parents a flat in Chirag and evoke something resembling They believed they were stronger Campus. It also kept returning to Dilli. It was an overall movement.” life in a city we’re familiar with. together than individually. West Delhi. Sarai Rohilla, minutes Banerjee’s characters saw They’ve also been instrumental in The relocation means more from where Banerjee used to stay nothing to boast about in their shifting the industry’s focus away than moving. The magician as a kid, may not have been name- West Delhi origins. Audiences from touristy locations like India will keep performing, and the checked in Khosla Ka Ghosla, but would have to wait until 2008 for Gate and Chandni Chowk to neigh- puppeteer will keep making a significant portion of the film was Band Baaja Baaraat to introduce bourhoods that look like “the real puppets, but the important shot there. The neighbourhood the novel idea of West Delhi cool. Delhi”. The West Delhi film might question is, are they going to also provided a crucial setting for Far from covering up their origins, just be a small, specific subgenre teach their children these things? the director’s next venture, 2008’s wedding planners Shruti and Bit- in itself, easily differentiated from It’s about being part of an artistic Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, a film imbued too infuse formulaic South Delhi the surface nostalgia of Delhi-6 or community and what happens with the spirit of Maya Enclave, Karol do’s with their “Janakpuri style”. the surface gloss of Aisha. They when that community dissolves. Bagh and Paschim Vihar; places Production designer TP Abid told may eventually be subsumed with- As told to Uday Bhatia. Dilliwalas were familiar with but the us that director’s Maneesh Shar- in the rapidly evolving superset of The film is slated to release later rest of the country knew little about. ma’s familiarity with the milieu the Delhi film. But it’s nice to know this year. Check for updates Oye Lucky Lucky Oye was a razor- (he grew up in Pitampura) helped you can always call upon them to on www.facebook.com/ sharp satire about Delhi’s visible the crew find and transform loca- add a dash of Janakpuri style to tomorrowwedisappear. and invisible class divisions. tions into authentic slices of West proceedings. March 30 – April 12 2012 www.timeoutdelhi.net 29

CS-West Delhi Final.indd 29 3/22/2012 9:38:00 PM far, there’s been no untoward incident, even after we released prisoners.” What confuses, and slightly amuses Gupta, is the simulta- neous demand, from across Delhi, for the “Tihar roti”. “We’ve had requests from lawyers, politicians, middle-class men and women from West Delhi and beyond, for just a single roti made by a prisoner,” he told us. Reviled though they may be to most, Tihar’s inmates are held in special regard by extra-religious Hindus, who believe that a roti made by a criminal will ward off bad luck for generations to come. The belief comes from the Lal Kitab (Red miki

l Book), a Vedic astrology book that a b

t

i offers remedies to the penitent, n a

m The long wait Well-wishers outside Tihar Jail for everything from physical ill- ness to bad fortune. confirmed that he did raise the “Of course, we’ve turned down issue with Tihar officials. “After these requests,” Gupta laughed, Life sentence all,” said Mukhi, “it’s a matter of “aren’t TJ’s brand [of snacks made their sense of security. It’s not by prisoners] good enough?” just the violent criminals; petty But for most residents like Tihar offers a new lease of life to some of its thieves come out that way too. The Devgan, the Lal Kitab is of no inmates, but those living outside its walls have residents are also wary of prison significance personally. “We are breaks.” So much so that even the here on a daily basis,” Devgan a wary relationship with the big house on the occasional alarm or fire drill can said. “The requests must come block, findsGayathri Sreedharan. set them on edge. from those who live far away, Mukhi and his constituents in their plush, untarnished didn’t have much luck with their surroundings.” True, most high few months ago, we wrote Gupta told Time Out, “We’ve had petition; Gate 4 continues to security jails aren’t located in the about an incident in 1979, complaints from the RWAs of release prisoners. The continued middle of residential colonies. A when Indian Express jour- these areas because they are all requests for change seem to baf- And no doubt if land in Delhi nalist Ashwin Sarin infiltrated close to Gate Number 4, where we fle Gupta, who is eager to boast weren’t at such a premium, the Tihar. Well before Kiran Bedi’s release prisoners every Thursday. of the jail’s security. “We’ve got likes of Devgan and Mukhi might time, the two days Sarin spent in They even filed complaints with us armed guards, high walls, elec- have settled in more comfortably the “hellhole” were traumatising, through their former MLA, Jagdish trical fencing, and there’s a few elsewhere. But life does go on; and the impressionistic “Getting Mukhi.” Mukhi, member of the BJP hundred metres between the jail no one’s banging down the doors into Tihar” series of articles that and formerly the Delhi Cabinet, cells and the boundary walls. So at Gate 4 in protest. followed further confirmed the general public’s suspicions: Tihar was a hub of bad energy. Violent criminals lived like animals, and jail officials didn’t really care. For the residents of Vidya Marg in Maya Enclave, as well as those of Janakpuri’s blocks B and C, who live closest to Tihar’s exit gates, those impressions still persist – Bedi’s reforms notwithstanding. At the very least, the residents we spoke to admit to a general sense of discomfort at the idea of the world’s biggest jail existing in their midst. Speaking to us on the phone, PL Devgan, a former rt a

president of the Maya Enclave s

Resident Welfare Association, o

sounded cagey when he explained, e r u

“We’ve complained to the Tihar o jail officials in the past, yes. Their c t ja sy arrangements for the prisoners aren’t always conducive to our Jail house roti Rameshwar Broota photographed “Roti” in 2009 at the Tihar Jail community kitchen, as part of a two-year- long well being.” project organised by Ojas Art. The resulting exhibition, Expressions at Tihar, included artworks by Broota and other artists based on their experiences of visiting the jail, and by inmates who attended art classes during this time. “The show ended up being the largest In his yawning office in the fundraiser for the Tihar Jail Welfare Fund, ever,” said Anubhav Nath, the curator. Tihar complex, Law Officer Sunil 30 www.timeoutdelhi.net March 30 – April 12 2012

CS-West Delhi Final.indd 30 3/22/2012 9:38:17 PM ocated behind Tilak Nagar’s Many of the people in this block busy Metro station and are my neighbours from Trilokpuri. Lmarket, with its large, glass- In living memory Because everybody is together, walled showrooms, restaurants there is a support system. If and English coaching institutes, another widow is making a living Tilak Vihar presents a striking con- Forgotten Tilak Vihar still remembers the here, so can I. trast. Small, ground-floor shops violence of 1984, says Sonam Joshi. are tucked between faded yellow- What are the problems you face gray apartments. The crowded living here? houses are in a state of disrepair, Our houses are about to collapse. their plaster peeling and cement We were given exemption from breaking, and the dusty parks are paying electricity and water bills, littered with garbage and rubble. but lately lady police officials have Neglected though it may be, been coming to our houses and Tilak Vihar – or Widows’ Colony, asking us to pay our bills. The gov- as it’s locally known – is full of old ernment should think about how memories. Every family here has we will get by. How can we pay the a story about the tumultuous bills when it is so difficult for us to events that followed the assassi- make both ends meet? We used nation of Indira Gandhi in October to get a small monthly pension 1984. These residents have suf- from the Sisganj Gurudwara but fered dislocation twice: they were that has also stopped. We also the urban poor who were relocated demanded compensation from the to resettlement colonies such as Nowhere people Bhagi Kaur government and they had agreed Trilokpuri in East Delhi. In 1985, near her home in Tilak Nagar to give us a sum of `10 lakh, but they were shifted to Tilak Vihar, we have only received `7 lakh. when these flats were allotted to came here in early 1985. Station. In 1986, I got a Class the widows and family members of IV government job in a school at Do you keep track of the 1984 Sikhs killed during the riots. Twen- What was the area like? a starting salary of `900. It was riot court cases? ty-seven years later, people have When we came, there were not very difficult to make ends meet. I used to attend court hearings settled in, but certain wounds nev- as many shops here. The area We had to work throughout the regularly, even taking leave from er had a chance to heal. Resident behind Tilak Vihar was an empty day. There was no one at home school. But even though we have Bhagi Kaur, 56, told Sonam Joshi expanse. There was no electric- to take care of the children when gone to court regularly, there about life in the neighbourhood. ity for the first few months, and a they were young. Now, I work in are others who have benefited. common tap for 16 houses in the Sarvodaya Bal Vidyalaya in Jana- I haven’t gone for the last eight How did you end up in Tilak Vihar? block. We got these services in kpuri between noon and 6 pm. My months. Now, there is also a new I used to live in block number 32 a few months. Initially, we were sons only studied until primary principal at my school, so I have in Trilokpuri in East Delhi, and in quite lost and distraught. My school, but my daughters reached to be careful. Shahdara before that. When we children were very young. We middle school. My elder son works were resettled from Shahdara to didn’t know what to do. It was in a gurudwara but spends all his Do you still hope to get justice? Trilokpuri, we were allotted plots only after I got a job that we got earnings on his addictions. It’s a What justice will we get? It’s been of 25 yards and given loans of our bearings back. problem common to many young- 28 years. If the government hasn’t `2,000 each. I lost several rela- sters here. My grandsons study in given us justice so far, what can tives in 1984 – my husband, my How did your life change after Guru Harkrishan Public School… we expect now? The government nephew, my brother, my brother- moving here? maybe they will get a better life. only looks after the rich; it doesn’t in-law and others. After [the riots], I didn’t work when I was in Trilok- care about the poor. If the guilty we lived in a camp in Farsh Bazar puri. My husband used to work as How did you cope with the loss of are punished, we will feel that all Khana for four to five months and a coolie in the New Delhi Railway your husband? our demands have been fulfilled. Electric ride Dwarka City Wheels nature, “rickshaw pullers are in ago. “It requires much less effort,” “You know Shatrughan Sinha?” more demand here, but they are Mahesh said, “and I can run it for Mahesh, a 30-year-old rickshaw often easily tired out, and therefore much longer”. Sinha said many of puller, asked me. “These cycles don’t make enough money to cover the battery-rickshaw pullers have belong to his nephew.” Indeed, the costs,” Sinha explained. “In addi- given up drinking on weekdays. sign at the back of Mahesh’s new tion, we had reports that many of The electric rick has boosted battery-operated two-seater pro- them drink in the evening, mostly incomes too. Mahesh said he makes claims that it belongs to one Mukesh to deal with the physical stress.” at least `100 extra daily. Sinha cred- Sinha and is part of the Dwarka City With an auto manufacturer, the its the rickshaw with doubling daily Wheels’ fleet, which is slowly mak- Sinhas redesigned the rickshaw (it incomes from an average of `250 to ing its presence felt in the sub-city. was a three-seater, but the battery `500. “Because it looks new, and is Sinha and wife Sudha, who run drained too fast). After producing more stable than the ordinary cycle, the Dwarka Self-Employment Trust 25 rickshaws that go up to 80 kilo- [it] has more takers,” he said. By for labourers, came across a design metres on a full battery, the Sinhas June, DSET will introduce 150 more for a battery-operated rickshaw two approached pullers last November electric rickshaws to Dwarka. Rid- (2) i years ago, at a fair in Pragati Maid- to discuss the advantages of switch- ers, be warned – the added efficien- k a

an. “We knew this design could be b ing. Mahesh, who has pulled rick- cy comes at a price. For a distance of t i

used here in Dwarka,” Sinha told us. shaws in Dwarka for three years, 200 metres, Mahesh charged us `30. n Due to the suburb’s sprawling got his City Wheels two months Gayathri Sreedharan ma lmi 32 www.timeoutdelhi.net March 30 – April 12 2012

CS-West Delhi Final.indd 32 3/22/2012 9:38:32 PM Jolly good fellow Humour thrives in the unlikeliest places, as Sonam Joshi discovers in Naraina.

he way to the office of cure, that I should go home and Naraina’s local funny man rest. As my social circle reduced, Tis through a narrow, dark I began writing jokes and stories alley and a dank staircase. But and sending them to various news- then, above a sign printed with papers,” he recalled. the words Jolly Uncle, is the reas- It took a couple of years for Jolly suring logo of two smiley faces to find success. His earliest jokes welcoming you in. The name is an were printed in local newspapers, apt nom de plume for Jatinder Pal many of them published from Singh Jolly – and one that is easily West Delhi. These included Uday recognisable to readers of Punjab Prakash and Triveni Bhasha from Kesari, which has featured Jolly’s Tilak Nagar, Meri Dilli from Punjabi

jokes and stories for the 11 years. Bagh, and Rashtriya Samachar manitbalmiki All smiles Jatender Pal Singh Jolly in his office Jolly, 59, told us that his name from Paschim Vihar. “These made was a fortuitous mistake, which me realise that I could write,” draws on double meanings and screen too, with a script that’s came about when an employee he said. His health problem still puns in to elicit laughs. been made into a - of a local newspaper accidentally restricts his movement, but Jolly But jokes are no laughing mat- ring veteran TV comedy couple printed his jokes under this pen- remains undaunted. He published ter for this gent. “I realised that Jaspal and Savita Bhatti. Titled name. As fate would have it, the his first joke book,Hansi Ka Khaz- humour can change people’s Chadha Chadhi Te Nikke, the film, moniker stuck. “Now, nobody ana, in 2004, and has put out four lifestyle for the better,” he said, scheduled to release in October, recognises me as Jitender Jolly, more since then. explaining how he began writing is a slapstick take on the state of everybody knows me only as Jolly Jolly finds inspiration for his motivational stories, which were medical care. Its protagonists are Uncle,” he said. Besides authoring humour in everyday life. “You look compiled in his latest book Anmol two government hospital doctors five Hindi joke books, this funny here, there is a vendor on the Khushiyan. He has also tackled who misuse the facilities of the uncle’s writing has appeared street calling out. You look there, subjects like drunk driving for Del- hospital they work in. in over 100 local and national you see children up to naughty hi Police’s Navchetna magazine, Jolly ensures that his fans get newspapers. antics. There is humour all around and violence in Kashmir for the their supply of humour in the form Jolly runs a cargo cleaning agen- us – it only needs to be recogni- Indian army’s magazine My Views. of a daily joke on his Facebook cy in Naraina and has been a resi- sed,” he said. One of Jolly’s oft- A typical Jolly Uncle story begins page. He’s also become some- dent of Tilak Nagar since 1986. repeated stories is centered on a on a humourous note, goes on to thing of a community figure in Tilak His father migrated from Pakistan misunderstanding with his dhobi. discuss the issue and concludes Nagar, as his pictures with various during Partition, and settled down Jolly asks his dhobi to reverse (ulti with “a strong message that eminences attest. “I am lucky I in in 1955. It was karo) his shirt before ironing it. He touches the heart”. get love and respect from every- here that Singh spent his forma- returns some time later to find the Jolly’s most popular characters one. I am invited to every function tive years. But he discovered his shirt is still unironed because, as are Veeru and Basanti, from the whether BJP or Congress, Delhi funny bone relatively late in life, per instructions, the dhobi was Bollywood blockbuster Sholay, Police, a temple or a gurudwara,” when he was diagnosed with deep waiting to do ulti (vomit) first. “It’s which he introduced a decade he said, “because whatever I write vein thrombosis in 1994. “The nothing but a little bit of wordplay,” ago. His own characters are is for the betterment of society.” doctors told me that there was no explained Jolly, who frequently set to make the leap to the big Visit www. jollyuncle.com Matrimonial alliance Rishte Hi Rishte Chand Arora, who started it in the diate friends – Arora managed to address, albeit in a new, but curi- An entire generation of Indians who early 1970s. Professor Arora’s title, tap into the zeitgeist of the Indian ously weathered-looking building. grew up in Delhi in the ’80s and ’90s also scrawled across the walls, arranged marriage, and discovered In a way, Rishte Hi Rishte was a could be forgiven for forgetting their presumably added a veneer of legiti- a lacuna, where people were done symbol of the burgeoning presence own addresses. But only serious macy and propriety to the business contemplating their navels. of West Delhi on the wedding map, amnesia could justify blanking that shared the august company Then, inevitably, things changed. with specific markets for each out on 28 Regarpura. The address, of “Khandani dawakhanas” and From a snoozing, semi-provincial aspect of the celebration. Rishte inscribed on every wall back in the “Gupt rog visheshagyas”. During town, Delhi became a city. Defacing Hi Rishte may live on only in our day, was ubiquitous – inveigling its the early ’80s, Rishte Hi Rishte and walls became a punishable offence. collective memory, incubated by the way into our memories, powered the marriage bureau business grew And the Internet brought with it the warmth of a shared joke, but these by the breathless message that exponentially, attracting johnny- matrimonial website, an admission- establishments – shaadi bands, accompanied it. “Rishte Hi Rishte come-latelys like Pathak Ji Ke free playground for stressed and kundan set lenders, thali decorators [Matches and more matches],” Rishte. They were undoubtedly aid- time-strapped parents. Rishte Hi – continue to thrive. See p58 for the screamed the walls, followed by a ed by their 360-degree approach to Rishte also attenuated its busi- wedding businesses Time Out’s wheedling “Ek Baar Milein To Sahi advertising, which eclipsed Arora’s ness: it now exists as Connexon H, intreprid shopping team dug up. [Meet us at least once]”. crucial contribution to the business rebranded with incorrect spellings Karanjeet Kaur Rishte Hi Rishte was a marriage of fixing weddings. Before the mar- to answer the demands of the day, Connexon H, Aroras KDC, 28 bureau, the brainchild of late Eng- riage bureau came along, weddings and is run by Arora’s niece, Poonam Padam Singh Road, Regarpura lish literature professor Dharam were fixed through family or imme- Sachdev. It still stands at the same (99119-37641). m Karol Bagh. 34 www.timeoutdelhi.net March 30 – April 12 2012

CS-West Delhi Final.indd 34 3/23/2012 10:32:51 AM